FCBARCELONA.CAT

01.03.2008 22:44

Rijkaard: “We didn’t react well after the equaliser”

Anna Segura

The Dutch manager thinks the team should have sealed the victory after Ronaldinho’s goal. Even though they controlled the game almost the entire first half, Rijkaard has admitted, “we should have punished them more”.

Kun Agüero’s bull’s eye in the 36th minute, and wich brought the game to a one all draw, was, for Rijklaard, the turning point of the game. Barça’s manager has admitted that, “we didn’t react after the equaliser. Up until Ronaldinho’s goal we were in control of the game”.

We had to punish them more

One of the keys to our undoing in the Vicente Calderon, according to Rijkaard, was not finalising the game with more goals: “We dominated but without doing much harm. We created very few chances of goal with the score in our favour. It’s important to hold on to the result you also have to look for a second”.

Good game by Athletico

Frank Rijkaard did not doubt accepting that Atlético Madrid played a great game. In his point of view, the Dutch trainer thinks that with the second and third goals they lacked some organisation. I saw too many forwards in our midfield”.

As for the substitution of Leo Messi, Rijkaard has explained that “we’ve talked to the doctors and they told us that there were players with discomfort and some at risk of overloading”.

Keep going

Even though the distance has grown from the leader, Frank Rijkaard isn’t throwing in the towel: “every week things change”. And he added that “we have to win all our remaining games”.